Page 18 of The Russian Retribution

“Viktor doesn’t think so.” I sigh tiredly. “You should have seen his face when I told him yesterday.”

“Is that your way of saying sorry for going for my throat?” Erik chuckles, moving beside me as we head toward the stairs. “Because I’m on your side, remember. I’m just security, sure, but I think this is good.”

“I’m… sorry,” I say tightly, and the word is oddly hard to say. I spent so long saying it to my father that after his death, a part of me closed down and adopted his cold approach to everything, including being wrong. “I’m on the defense all the time because I’m so used to pushback the moment I make a suggestion.”

“You’re the boss,” Erik says, taking the steps down faster than me. “Don’t suggest. Order.”

“You forget that I’m a woman.” I snort softly. “My orders aren’t taken as smoothly as you might think.”

“Host another dinner.” Erik grins slyly up at me as we reach the next floor. “That’ll make people listen.”

“Are you suggesting I start killing more of my team?”

“Maybe don’t kill people this time.” Erik laughs. “But it couldn’t hurt to?—”

His words fail as a sudden boom echoes below us, shaking the entire building. Dust and cement drift down around our shoulders, and our eyes lock.

“Construction?” Erik asks, although his tone already betrays what he suspects.

“They’re on pause today,” I say tightly. “Because of my visit.”

“Who knew you were coming here?” Erik grabs my hand tightly and immediately starts dragging me down the stairs.

“No one,” I gasp, stumbling to keep up with him as he takes the steps down two at a time. “I have no one to tell.”

“We’re going out the back,” he says, his voice tight. On the next floor, Erik stops abruptly and I crash into his unmoving body. Clutching at his shirt to steady myself, I peer around his arm to see smoke pouring out from one of the vents high in the wall.

“Accidents happen in construction, right?” I say breathlessly.

Another explosion is my answer. A column of fire suddenly explodes through the open elevator shaft on the other side of the floor. Distant yells and alarms begin to blare through the air, and Erik pulls me closer against him.

“You stay right on my ass, you understand me?” he orders, turning to face me. “We’re going to run down to the next floor and then take a left. I saw scaffolding at the end on the way up. We run, okay?”

The floor beneath our feet gives a terrible shudder and the entire building—consisting of the bare shell outline of a towering condo block—sways.

“Okay,” I gasp, quickly erupting into a coughing fit as dust and dirt fill the air in a matter of seconds and flood my lungs.

Erik weaves our fingers together, unholsters his weapon, and we run.

Explosions pop off beneath us and the thick, black smoke from the spreading fire soon consumes the entire building. The stairwell we run down quickly becomes overwhelmed with smoke, and I’m barely able to see Erik despite his being right in front of me. All I have is his hand to guide me, so with streaming eyes and terrible coughing, I focus as hard as I can on his hand.

We make it to the bottom, but as we reach it, the next step I expect isn’t there. There’s nothing to greet me, and Erik yells out above me as the floor disappears and I fall down into darkness—abruptly stopped by Erik’s grip on my arm.

“Erik!”

“Hold on!” he yells, briefly visible as the smoke swirls around us. “Don’t you let go!”

My heart thunders in my ears as my stomach lurches upward like it’s trying to escape out of my body. I can barely breathe through the smoke, and while Erik’s grip is like iron, a wall of orange forms behind him. Dangling above a dark abyss and with more brick and cement crumbling around me, a sudden cold fear grips me.

“Erik, look out!”

I glimpse him as he turns his head, and his grip on my arm becomes painful as he takes in the growing fire behind him.

“Anastasia!” he yells, turning back to me. “I’m going to pull you up and?—”

Something heavy and warm suddenly wraps around my legs, adding an impossible weight to Erik’s arm. His eyes widen and his mouth opens in a yell as the sudden extra weight around me jerks my arm out of his iron grip.

I fall with a scream into nothingness.

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